Let’s start with a few big, aggregated websites that will yield a lot of information in very few clicks. The Educational Resources Information Center, also known as ERIC and run by the United States Government’s Department of Education, is simply one of the most important hubs for information related to the learning sciences.
Cognitive and Emotional Health
Have you read any of Ross Greene’s books? In the two I read (The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children and Lost at School: Why Our Kids with Behavioral Challenges Are Falling Through the Cracks and How We Can Help Them, he thoughtfully included in the appendices a list of national agencies dedicated to assisting children and adolescents dealing with issues that prevent them from engaging fully in their own educations.
If you deal with struggling learners, chances are you are dealing with kids with attenuated or abbreviated attention spans. Children with Attention Deficit Disorder (CHADD) has been around since 1987, and the organization has a solid history of advocating for understanding of kids dealing with this issue. I’ve seen their literature floating around in various places I’ve worked, and always been favorably impressed.
Over the years, I’ve dealt with a handful of kids with Tourette’s Syndrome, all of them boys, interestingly. HBO produced an excellent documentary on the syndrome called “I Have Tourette’s But Tourette’s Doesn’t Have Me”. If you are teaching a student with Tourette’s, you will find information on it at the Tourette Syndrome Association. Around the time I watched this documentary on Tourette’s Syndrome, I watched another excellent film on HBO called “The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia.” As a practicing teacher in New York City, I attended more inane wastes of time disguised as professional development days than I care to remember; none of them ever dealt in any depth or with any seriousness of purpose with the challenge of teaching dyslexic students. So I am grateful to the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity for providing guidance for aiding these students.
Two groups that are more generally helpful to the special education teacher are the Learning Disabilities Association of America and the National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities. While I haven’t used the site much myself, the Harvard Center for the Developing Child clearly has much to offer in studying how children learn and develop.
Because I began my career working with children and adolescents in the adolescent program of a major New England psychiatric hospital, when I interviewed for a position in the New York City Teaching Fellowship, I was awarded a special education position. I am interested in children’s mental health, because kids who suffer mental illness cannot learn–that, I believe, ought to be axiomatic in our schools. And parents really ought to know how to advocate for their afflicted children. If you are dealing with these issues in your teaching practice, or if you are a parent of a child with challenges to his or her mental health, you will probably want to look at the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health website.
If you have anxious children and adolescents under your tutelage, this mental health challenge can manifest itself in a variety of ways, including obsessive-compulsive disorder. The International Obsessive Compulsive Foundation is a thorough clearinghouse for information on this issue. More generally, the Anxiety Disorders Association of America is a good place to find practical advice on assisting anxious students.
Over the years, I’ve seen enough depressed kids and adults to know one when I see–or just as importantly–hear one. There are several good places to go for information on depressive syndromes. the first is the International Foundation for Depressive Illness. If you have bipolar students, then you might find Depression & Bipolar Support Alliance helpful to your understanding of this illness.
A significant portion of the students I have served over the years would have benefitted, I feel confident in saying, from occupational therapy. If you have a student whose handwriting is difficult to decipher, you might be looking at a child with motor skills challenges. The American Occupational Therapy Association might help you gain some insight into this issue. If your school district is like most–i.e. underfunded–this website might provide you and your students with the assistance that your school will not.
Children with literacy struggles in our schools are fortunate because federal, state and municipal legislatures and their minions have yet to destroy speech, language and hearing programs like these bodies have in far too many of our public schools. If you are interested in knowing what these vital practitioners do in our schools, you may want to look at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association website.
Founded “in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to address the impact of trauma on New York City public school students” and working in schools in New York City, Newark, New Jersey, and Washington D.C., Turnaround for Children is a research and advocacy organization that seeks to equip educators to address the impact of trauma and the stress it produces on development and learning.
Debate
As my interest in building debate into everyday classroom instruction develops–thanks to the people and organizations delineated below, I have relocated resources on debate from under the English Language Arts heading and given it a home of its own here.
In July, 2021, I had the good fortune to attend a three-day professional development workshop on Debate-Centered Instruction. While forensics clubs and debate teams were certainly part of the discourse during this event, much of what was discussed concerned integrating debate into classroom practice. The English Speaking Union was a driver of this event. The faculty was a diverse group of people affiliated with The Ethics Project, The Public Debate Program, and Debating for Everyone; participating faculty also included the authors of Resolved: Debate Can Revolutionize Education and Help Save Our Democracy, Winning Debates, and The Debating Book: Everything You Need to Know about Debating. The group was also generous with documents, so I’ll pass them along here: first is a worksheet on teaching argumentation from the Middle School Public Debate Program; from the Boston Debate League, here is a worksheet on evidence-based argument skill progression; here are two documents from the sources above, the first on the basics of effective argumentation and the second on the basics of effective refutation; here is a graphic organizer for building arguments; here is a outline of steps for using text as the basis of argument; this learning support on types of evidence and their use is integral to any debate-centered instruction; here is a set of instructions for staging a “Superfight.” a debate-centered classroom exercise for constructing arguments; finally, this article on topic writing for debates from John Meany at Claremont McKenna College is rife with fundamental advice on analyzing and developing debate topics.
Steve Johnson at the University of Alaska-Anchorage was one of the participants in the debate professional development sessions I attended. He has brought to fruition his website Argutopia. I’ve recently attended a couple of development sessions Steve held to introduce the site and point out some of its many powerfully useful features. Steve is, to risk flogging an overused, attenuated word, passionate about debate. He also has a number of videos on YouTube worth viewing. I’ve opened a beta account on Argutopia and plan to use it with the debate club I’ll lead during the 2022-2023 school year. Stay tuned here for more on Steve Johnson and Argutopia.
Last but certainly not least, on the subject of debate (and you’ll find him listed in the blogroll on the front page of this blog), I highly recommend Julian Bell’s Debating For Everyone blog. Mr. Bell has also written a book on the subject of debate, The Debating Book, which I have taken up as a core text in my planning library. Julian was my mentor in the program on debating I’ve discussed above. He is available for professional development workshops.
English Language Arts
If you are an English teacher, or you just desire in general to inculcate better writing habits in your students, then you should definitely check out the the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue. There are a number of sites out there like it, but in my experience it is simply the best. And your students will likely find it, provided the have the background knowledge of terms, quite easy to use.
In late 2018, I began work on a series of worksheets to meet a Common Core Standard that I find necessary and compelling, to wit: “Standard (L.11-12.1b)-Resolve issues of complex or contested usage, consulting references, (e.g., Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, Garner’s Modern American Usage) as needed.” I chose, for the struggling learners I serve, Paul Brians’ excellent book Common Errors in English Usage (Portland, OR: William James & Co., 2013). It’s a bit less technical then Merriam-Webster’s or Garner’s, and Professor Brians’ avuncular, conversational tone struck me as more appropriate for high school students, particularly students who may be struggling with reading and writing. Conducting the research in July 2019 for this blog post, I was astonished to find that Professor Brians published Common Errors in English Usage on his website–in its entirety (!). Moreover, you can also find it as a free PDF here. Whichever of those links you click, you will have access to Common Errors in English Usage. You will also find worksheets based on the book’s text here on Mark’s Text Terminal.
Elsewhere on this blog I published a post on Steven Van Zandt’s website for educators, TeachRock. The lessons you will find there might be more properly categorized in the social studies section of this page. However you categorize the materials you find there, they are high interest. These are the kinds of lessons that can rouse, I think, even the most alienated and apathetic learners.
While I briefly considered subscribing to its newsletter, I never got involved with the International Literacy Association, which, when I was receiving its solicitations, was called the International Reading Association. Therefore, my exposure to this organization was brief and superficial. Nonetheless, I gather, over the years, that it enjoys a good reputation.
If you’re working with English Language Learners, or ELLs, as they’re known, then you’ll want to know about Colorin Colorado, which functions to aid you students and…you!
Another thing that might be generally useful, and particularly useful to English Language Learners, is the Speech Accent Archive at George Mason University. For the classroom teacher at the elementary and secondary level, particularly those working with English language learners, I think this is a valuable resource.
In July, 2021, I had the good fortune to attend a three-day professional development workshop on Debate-Centered Instruction. While forensics clubs and debate teams were certainly part of the discourse during this event, much of what was discussed concerned integrating debate into classroom practice. The English Speaking Union was a driver of this event. The faculty was a diverse group of people affiliated with The Ethics Project, The Public Debate Program, and Debating for Everyone; participating faculty also included the authors of Resolved: Debate Can Revolutionize Education and Help Save Our Democracy, Winning Debates, and The Debating Book: Everything You Need to Know about Debating. The group was also generous with documents, so I’ll pass them along here: first is a worksheet on teaching argumentation from the Middle School Public Debate Program; from the Boston Debate League, here is a worksheet on evidence-based argument skill progression; here are two documents from the sources above, the first on the basics of effective argumentation and the second on the basics of effective refutation; here is a graphic organizer for building arguments; here is a outline of steps for using text as the basis of argument; this learning support on types of evidence and their use is integral to any debate-centered instruction; here is a set of instructions for staging a “Superfight.” a debate-centered classroom exercise for constructing arguments; finally, this article on topic writing for debates from John Meany at Claremont McKenna College is rife with fundamental advice on analyzing and developing debate topics.
Last but certainly not least, on the subject of debate, I highly recommend Julian Bell’s Debating For Everyone blog. Mr. Bell has also written a book on the subject of debate, The Debating Book, which I have taken up as a core text in my planning library.
Foreign Languages
If there was a time in the history of our species on our planet to learn a second language (or a third, or fourth, depending on your polyglot tendencies), now would be it. A good place to find a plethora of materials for teaching “foreign languages” (for some reason, even as a seventh grader studying French and German, I never cared for that locution) is the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
Libraries
Let’s begin with what I think is one of the most important research libraries in the United States, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. I lived in Harlem for the first seven years I was in New York City, and for six of those seven years I walked by this institution every morning, and visited its exhibitions regularly. In a neighborhood that was the birthplace for some key elements of American culture, this is a jewel, and that is saying something.
During the pandemic year, I attended a lot of professionally rewarding and personally edifying webinars at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. One could write an entire book of the riches of this institution. Let me mention that in the time I spent online with the staff of the Beinecke, they focused heavily on Black History. As the library holds, among other things, the papers of Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson–all of them digitized for public access–I needn’t belabor the resources available to teachers at the Beinecke. Did I mention that Dr. Walter O. Evans recently presented the Beinecke with his collection of Frederick Douglass and Douglass Family Papers to the Beinecke, and that these vital documents too are digitized for public use?
Handwriting/Penmanship
As I have noted elsewhere on this blog, in every one of the inner-city schools in which I have served I encountered students whose passion, to my great surprise, was to learn to write in cursive. Since many of these same students didn’t know how to sign their names–but somehow understood the importance of creating their own signature–I could rationalize getting them started on cursive work.
If you encounter this same demand in your classroom, this reference sheet on handwriting websites might be worth a look. I also heartily recommend Kitty Burns Florey’s excellent book, both as a resource and as a pleasant experience reading her warm, instructive prose, Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting. You might also want to take a look at the review essay on handwriting and penmanship that I published as a blog post in June of 2019.
Mathematics
Are you familiar with the civil rights activist Robert Parris “Bob” Moses? I ask because he is relatively easy to confuse with New York City “master builder” Robert Moses (who is the subject of Robert Caro’s magisterial biography The Power Broker). Bob Moses founded The Algebra Project. Math teachers I know tell me that Mr. Moses has done some pioneering work in making algebra and other higher forms of mathematics accessible for students who have struggled with math.
If you’re looking for something a bit more mainstream, your professional association, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, looks like a one-stop shop for resources related to your domain.
Music
Music was was part of the Quadrivium, which indicates its importance to humans early on in our development as a thinking, learning species. As Nietzsche famously said, “Without music, life would be a mistake.” Teachers of this noble and vital subject might find, if they haven’t already, that National Association for Music Education is a good resource for their discipline.
The Rock and Roll Forever Foundation has developed TeachRock, a one-stop shop for using music, particularly rock and roll, as a means to teach a variety of subject. The fact is, TeachRock offers a materials that span the curriculum, and its material conforms to everything I understand about teaching conceptual knowledge for transfer. My circumstances as a teacher never afforded me an opportunity to use TeachRock’s materials, but if they had, I would have relied heavily on the organization’s materials.
Music is also of particularly high interest to kids, which is why Mark’s Text Terminal uses a “music” tag. For curricular materials about music, simply click on that tag in the Tag Cloud on the home page of this site.
Physical Education
Teachers in this discipline will probably already know about the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, but there’s the link anyway. If you look under N on that website, incidentally, you’ll find an encyclopedia entry for the New Games Foundation. When I worked with hospitalized kids, we ran a New Games group every day. I still bring out the old New Games Book when circumstances require me to put together a physical activity (which, at my age, is thankfully rarely).
Science
With a subject that evolves (so to speak) as quickly as the hard sciences, I wonder how teachers, particularly in the higher grades, keep up with the advance of the discipline. One place I imagine keeps teachers in this field abreast of its developments must be the National Academies Press. It goes without saying, I assume, that the National Science Teaching Association is the one-stop shop for professional development and culture in the science teacher’s domain.
Social Studies
It’s hard to imagine a better place to start under this heading than with the National Council for the Social Studies. As its website points out, it works to prepare students for “College, Career, and Civic Life.” The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) operates the National Center for History in the Schools, which in turn promotes a “Public History Initiative.” When I was looking at doctoral programs in history in the late 1990s, UCLA’s department was regarded as the best in the United States. In New York City, world history was offered under the rubric of “Global Studies.” The World Forum Foundation uses similar terminology; it also appears to offer excellent programs for both students and teachers. If you want to add geographical education to any history course, what better place to start than the National Geographic Society? I don’t imagine I need to elaborate much on the resources offered by this august organization. The Stanford History Education Group offers a variety of lessons, assessments, and even classroom posters, all at no charge.
“Civics” as a social studies endeavor appears to be making a comeback, and not a moment too soon. The Center for Civic Education looks like one of the places to go for resources and support in developing a sound civics curriculum.
For economics education, you might want to check out the Council for Economic Education, which offers a variety of programs and resources. For the little bit of economics teaching I did, I found that it was useful to assign students to listen to National Public Radio’s excellent program, “Marketplace.”
Professional Associations for Teachers
If you’re a middle school teacher, particularly in the Northeast, you may want to check out the New England League of Middle Schools. A good friend of mine worked there, and I know that the League puts on some good professional development sessions. If I taught middle school and could get away for the League’s annual conference, I definitely would.
At this point, I don’t know how I discovered the Learning Policy Institute: I don’t know much about it other than I found a note in one of my Moleskines directing me to add it to this section of Mark’s Text Terminal. I’m certain I gleaned it from a book I read for professional development, but I read enough of this kind of stuff that I don’t remember which one.
Books Worth Reading for Professional Development
First of all, for my own records, I want to post links to Modern Library’s Top 100 Novels of the Twentieth Century as well as Modern Library’s 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Twentieth Century. These lists, I am well aware, are controversial. Nonetheless, I think them important, and for my own purposes (and maybe yours as well), I want them close at hand.
Here’s a list of reference books that have informed my instructional planning and teaching practice for the struggling learners I’ve served over the course of my career. Below here, I’ve written brief annotations of those I consider vital to building instructional materials for learners with challenges.
Journals/Periodicals
Elsewhere on this blog I’ve linked to or excerpted from materials I’ve gleaned from my reading of The American Federation of Teachers’ quarterly, the American Educator. I’ll say once more that this is a first rate compendium of research and analysis on key issues in public education in the United States. Indeed, it was through this periodical that I first encountered the work of Daniel Willingham (he writes the magazine’s “Ask the Cognitive Scientist” column), which has informed much of my thinking about planning instruction for struggling learners.
You might find useful or instructive this list of respected, peer-reviewed journals, which I excerpted from Jerome L. Rekart’s book The Cognitive Classroom (New York: Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2013).
Research and Advocacy in Education Policy
Because I have some strong ideas about the education as a public good, and that the state should supply–and indeed spare no expense in so doing–education to all its citizens. There is no more stalwart advocate for this position than the great Diane Ravitch. I highly recommend her blog, called, unsurprisingly, Diane Ravitch’s blog. The comments forum is the closest thing I know of in cyberspace to Socrates’ Agora.
Research and Advocacy in the Learning Sciences
If Mark’s Text Terminal is about any one thing–and I hope this is recognizable–it is figuring out how to apply the findings of educational research into classroom practice. There are an increasing number of scholars in the academy dedicated to the proposition, so this section is dedicated to exposing and promoting their work to those of us who work in the classroom.
Let’s start with Professor Daniel Willingham, a cognitive scientist at the University of Virginia. I’ve touted his work, by now, ad nauseum on this blog. In fact, the articles he produced for the American Federation of Teachers’ excellent quarterly, The American Educator, are linked to above. Be on the lookout as well for his books. I wasn’t aware that he also keeps a blog. For me, Dr. Willingham is one of the most concise and articulate writers out there on applying educational research to practice.
As above, you won’t regret investigating the time in reading Ross Greene’s books. His wise, compassionate, and advisory voice is a welcome antidote to a lot of the things you’ll hear, say, in teachers’ lounges in our public schools–which I mention from far greater experience than I would have chosen.
Mark's Text Terminal 